Multimedia consists of one or more media elements, such as text, voice, image and video, and it is the combination of these media elements in an ordered synchronized manner that creates a multimedia presentation, which is also referred to as multimedia content. A non-real time multimedia message as observed by the user is a combination of one or more different media elements in a multimedia presentation that can be transferred between users without having to be transferred in real time.
With the popularity of the Internet and increased capability of personal computers, multimedia technology has and continues to rapidly develop to allow new capabilities, such as multimedia messages, games, presentations and services that are now considered to be a part of every day life. Moreover, the reduced size and increased capabilities of handheld devices, such as personal data assistants (“PDAs”), mobile phones and combinations thereof, have made the delivery of multimedia content to such devices more of a possibility. Most of the user terminals currently in use are not, however, compatible with multimedia messages. As a result, a network that allows the transmission of multimedia messages will have to find a way to determine whether a user's device is capable of receiving multimedia messages and then deal with the multimedia message in some way. Despite the public's desire for multimedia compatible devices, this problem is likely to continue for quite some time, especially when considering the network operator's desire to have a network that is compatible with existing and previously deployed incompatible terminals.
There is, therefore, a need for a method, apparatus and system that provides multimedia messages to incompatible terminals and is capable of supporting current and future multimedia messaging services, and exploits the advances being made in the world multimedia community, with additional mobile requirements.